What Are You Building?STEP 1
Area & Pavers0 SQ FT
= 16 ft
= 12 ft
For an odd shape, measure it on the square footage calculator first and paste the total here. Base area is then estimated as if the shape were square, so if your patio is long and thin, add a little.
Pallet counts vary hugely by manufacturer and paver: 4x8 pallets run anywhere from about 400 to 560 pieces. Read your own product's spec sheet rather than trusting a generic number.
Base, Sand & Edging Detail
Compacted crushed aggregate base weighs roughly 1.3 to 1.5 tons per compacted cubic yard depending on the stone and how wet it is. 1.4 is a fair middle. Ask your quarry for the figure they invoice against and use theirs.
Polymeric sand coverage swings from about 20 to 100 sq ft per 50 lb bag depending on joint width and paver thickness. The default here is set from your paver size; read the bag before you buy.
Cross Section1:SCALE
Layers drawn to your real depths. The base extends 6 in past the paver edge on every open side, which is what keeps the perimeter from sinking.
Pavers To BuyLIVE
Pavers to buy
0 pavers
Pattern waste allowance
Base & Bedding#BASE
Joints & Edging#FINISH
Materials Ticket#PAVER
Enter your area to build the ticket.
Order all your pavers in one delivery. Concrete pavers vary in color between production runs, and a second order weeks later can arrive a visibly different shade.
How This Is CalculatedSHOW WORK
Patio base versus driveway base: the expensive mistake
This is the one that costs real money to fix. A patio carries people and furniture. A driveway carries a vehicle that also turns its front wheels while stationary, which grinds a point load into the surface. The published guidance is consistent on the split even though the exact numbers vary by installer:
Patio and walkway: 4 to 6 in of compacted base. Use 4 in on sand or well drained gravelly soil, 6 in on clay or anywhere water sits after rain.
Driveway: 8 to 12 in of compacted base. Use 8 in only on genuinely good draining soil, 10 in as the normal case, 12 in on clay, in a hard freeze climate, or where a heavy vehicle will park.
Two other things change with a driveway and neither is optional. Pavers must be 80 mm (3 1/8 in) thick, not the 60 mm patio paver. And the base must be compacted in lifts of 3 to 4 in with a plate compactor, not dumped 10 in deep and rolled once, because a single pass only compacts the top few inches and the rest settles later under the car.
The 6 inch base overhang
The base is calculated for an area 6 in larger than the pavers on every open side, because the edge of a paver field pushes outward and downward. If the compacted base stops exactly at the pavers there is nothing under the edge restraint spikes and the perimeter row sinks first. Sides that sit against a house wall or a retaining wall do not need the overhang, which is what the "sides against a wall" setting removes.
Pavers per square foot
144 square inches in a square foot, divided by the paver's width times its length. A 4 x 8 in paver is 32 sq in, so 144 / 32 = 4.5 pavers per sq ft. A 12 x 12 is exactly 1 per sq ft and a 12 x 24 is 0.5.
Enter the nominal size, not the caliper reading. A nominal 4 x 8 paver usually measures about 3 7/8 x 7 7/8 in so that with a 1/8 in sand joint it modules at exactly 4 x 8. That is why the joint is not a separate input here: it is already inside the nominal dimension, and adding it again would under-buy you.
Base gravel: cubic yards and tons
Volume is base area times depth, converted to cubic yards by dividing by 27. Tons are that compacted volume times the density, which for crushed aggregate base runs about 1.3 to 1.5 tons per compacted cubic yard. Quarries sell by the ton and quote a density for their own stone, so use theirs when you have it.
If your supplier sells by the loose cubic yard rather than by weight, order about 25% more than the compacted volume, because crushed base loses roughly a fifth to a quarter of its bulk when you compact it. That figure is shown separately below so you never confuse the two.
For gravel on its own, see the gravel calculator. For any depth of any fill in cubic yards, see the cubic yard calculator. For a poured slab instead of pavers, see the concrete calculator.
Paver Quick ReferenceSCREENSHOT ME
Pavers per square foot by size
| Paver | Sq in | Per sq ft | Per 100 sq ft | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 x 8 in | 32 | 4.50 | 450 | Brick, Holland, driveways |
| 6 x 6 in | 36 | 4.00 | 400 | Square accent, borders |
| 6 x 9 in | 54 | 2.67 | 267 | Modular runs |
| 8 x 8 in | 64 | 2.25 | 225 | Square patio field |
| 12 x 12 in | 144 | 1.00 | 100 | Patio slab, stepping |
| 12 x 18 in | 216 | 0.67 | 67 | Modern plank patio |
| 12 x 24 in | 288 | 0.50 | 50 | Large format slab |
| 24 x 24 in | 576 | 0.25 | 25 | Deck tile, roof terrace |
Base depth by use and soil
| Use | Good draining soil | Clay or poor drainage | Paver thickness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walkway, foot traffic | 4 in | 6 in | 60 mm |
| Patio, furniture and grill | 4 in | 6 in | 60 mm |
| Driveway, cars | 8 in | 10 to 12 in | 80 mm |
| Driveway, trucks or RV | 10 in | 12 in + | 80 mm |
| Bedding sand (all uses) | 1 in | 1 in | — |
Pattern waste allowance
| Pattern | Waste | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Running bond, stack bond | 5% | Only the perimeter row is cut |
| Basketweave | 5% | Modular, cuts only at the edge |
| Herringbone 45 or 90 degree | 10 to 15% | Every perimeter paver is a diagonal cut |
| Circular or fan | 15 to 20% | Curved cuts waste most of each piece |
| Random / multi-size modular | 10% | You will run short of one size in the mix |
| Any pattern, curved border | +5% | Add on top of the pattern figure |
Base gravel: cubic yards and tons per 100 sq ft
| Compacted depth | Cu ft | Cu yd | Tons at 1.4 | Loose cu yd to order |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 in | 33.3 | 1.23 | 1.73 | 1.54 |
| 6 in | 50.0 | 1.85 | 2.59 | 2.31 |
| 8 in | 66.7 | 2.47 | 3.46 | 3.09 |
| 10 in | 83.3 | 3.09 | 4.32 | 3.86 |
| 12 in | 100.0 | 3.70 | 5.19 | 4.63 |
| 1 in bedding sand | 8.3 | 0.31 | 0.42 | — |
Now Price The Job
Paver Calculator FAQ
How many pavers do I need for a 12x16 patio?
192 sq ft with 4 x 8 in pavers needs 864 pavers to cover it, and 908 with a 5% running bond waste allowance. Switch to herringbone at 12% and it becomes 968. With 12 x 12 in pavers the same patio needs 202 at 5%.
The base is bigger than the patio: 13 x 17 ft once you add the 6 in overhang, which is 221 sq ft. At a 4 in patio depth that is 2.73 cu yd or about 3.8 tons of crushed base.
How deep should the base be for a paver patio versus a driveway?
Patio: 4 to 6 in compacted. Four inches on well drained sandy or gravelly soil, six on clay or anywhere puddles sit after rain. Driveway: 8 to 12 in compacted. Eight only on genuinely good soil, ten as the normal case, twelve on clay, in a hard freeze climate or under a heavy vehicle.
Building a driveway on a patio base is the expensive mistake this calculator is designed to prevent. It looks perfect for one season, then the wheel tracks dish and the edges spread, and the fix is lifting every paver and starting at the subgrade. The base also has to go in as 3 to 4 in lifts, each one compacted, because a plate compactor only reaches a few inches down.
How many pavers are on a pallet?
It genuinely varies, so do not trust a single number. A pallet of 4 x 8 in pavers commonly holds somewhere between about 400 and 560 pieces depending on the manufacturer, the paver thickness and the pallet size, which is why this calculator asks you to type in the figure from your own product's spec sheet rather than assuming one.
Pallets are usually sold whole, so round up and expect leftovers. That is not waste: keep the spare pallet for repairs, because concrete pavers shift color between production runs and a replacement bought later will not match.
How much polymeric sand do I need?
A 50 lb bag covers roughly 20 to 100 sq ft, and where you land inside that range depends almost entirely on joint width and paver thickness. Narrow joints between thin 4 x 8 pavers use the least sand per square foot of the two variables in play, while wide joints between thick large-format slabs use the most.
The default in this calculator is set from your paver size, which is a reasonable planning figure. Before you buy, read the coverage printed on the bag of the specific product, because the spread between brands is larger than the spread between paver sizes.
Why is the base area larger than my patio?
Because the compacted base has to extend about 6 in past the pavers on every open side. The edge of a paver field wants to spread outward, and the edge restraint that stops it is spiked into the base. If the base ends where the pavers end, the spikes go into soft soil and the outer row settles and creeps within a couple of seasons.
A side that butts against a house wall, a footing or a retaining wall does not need the overhang, which is why this calculator lets you say how many sides are enclosed. On a 12 x 16 ft patio open on all four sides, the base is 13 x 17 ft, which is 15% more material than the patio itself.
Do I order base gravel by the ton or by the cubic yard?
Most quarries sell by the ton and most landscape suppliers sell by the cubic yard, so this calculator gives you both. The conversion is roughly 1.3 to 1.5 tons per compacted cubic yard for crushed aggregate base, and the exact figure depends on the stone and how wet it is. Ask the supplier what density they invoice against.
There is a trap when ordering by volume. The depth you are building is a compacted depth, but the truck delivers loose material that shrinks roughly 20 to 25% when you run the compactor over it. Order by the ton and it does not matter, because weight is weight. Order by the loose cubic yard and you need about 25% more than the compacted volume, which this calculator shows as its own line.
Can I skip the edge restraint?
No. It is the cheapest part of the job and the one that decides whether the field is still tight in five years. Pavers are held together by friction and by the joint sand, and without a restraint at the perimeter the outer rows walk outward a little at a time, the joints open, the sand washes out and the middle follows.
Plastic paver edging spiked with 10 in steel spikes roughly every 12 in is the standard. Concrete curbing and a soldier course set in mortar also work. What does not work is a trench edge, plastic lawn edging or nothing at all, and a driveway edge in particular takes a sideways load every time a tire crosses it.